On Anchor in Bora Bora

Our stay in the Society Islands has greatly improved since our arrival. The weather for the first 8 days was so rainy, that the runoff from Papeete, the principal city of Tahiti, generated an odor at our anchorage. We moved to another harbor, the sun came out, and the world was beautiful once again. We stayed in Maeva Harbor for three days, and then went to Cook's Bay on Moorea, an island about 14 miles from Tahiti.

The locals in Cook's Bay told us that when Hollywood comes to Tahiti-Polynesia, they do there filming in Cook's Bay. We anchored far up into the bay, in the morning shadow of a steeply sloped mountain, and in the afternoon shadow of a sheer stone cliff. The sun and clouds played shadow games on the slopes throughout the day. Watching the sun and shadows was similar to watching the constant changes inside of a fire.

While on Moorea, I took the opportunity to make another shark dive outside of the lagoon, near the large Tiki in front of the Club Med. Once again, the dive leaders were very professional, and the dive was fantastic. The dive tour book describes the dive very well. It says, "Following the dive master to the shark feeding spot is like being in the center of a freeway with faster cars overtaking you on both sides. The cars being sharks. Check your rearview mirror for a glimpse at the traffic jam behind you -- blacktips, greys, and a host of smaller fish."

Sitting on the bottom, I could see perhaps 20 to 30 sharks, ranging in length of 2 to 8 feet. Seemingly, thousands of other fish were there for the feeding. Bright yellow and white, double saddleback angle fish would gather in thick clouds, and periodically, a big hole would appear in the cloud, and a shark would come swimming through the hole.

Although swimming with sharks sounds frightening, it is not much different than watching sharks feeding on the Discovery channel. You watch through your dive mask, there is no noise, other than breathing and air bubbles, so the entire event seems to be happening on the other side of a remote transmission, not unlike television.

Even though Morea is a principal tourist spot, the people of Moorea were as friendly as any place that we visited. Of course the vendors are very friendly, but all of the local Polynesians are exceptionally welcoming. Polynesian teenage boys / young men can look tough with their long dark hair and large Marquisian body tattoos, but they are all very courteous, and helpful when addressed. We sometimes wave or say bonjour. They often smile broadly and give us the surfers hand greeting. I wasn't familiar with this sign before visiting FP. It is given by raising your hand, as if to wave, but not actually waving, extending the thumb and baby finger, and rotating the wrist. I asked what it means, and was told it means, "hang loose, everything is cool". I was also told that the FPs learned this sign from watching Hawaiian surfers on television. They have imported the greeting and use it frequently.

We spent three days in beautiful Cook's Bay. We met two souvenir vendors, Goodrun and Lee who were interested in our journey, and fascinated about how little we have lived the terror of events back home. It was evident that they had lived the experience more vividly than the Cosmos crew. Like everyone back home, they had watched all of the events via CNN. The only coverage we have gotten has come from two Time magazines, and one Newsweek that we purchased in Papeete. The most timely reports have come from Elke's emails.

We returned to Tahiti, Maeva Harbor to pick up Aaron and Anton We anchored about two miles from the FAAA Airport on the night of the 14th of October for Aaron's 2:40 AM, October 15th arrival. When he got to the Maeva Harbor Sofetel Hotel, he called (about 3:00 AM) and I took the dinghy to bring him and Anton to the boat. It was great to welcome Aaron and Anton aboard Cosmos.

We spent the 15th on anchor and did some snorkeling on the reef off of Maeva Harbor, and then went back to Pepeete to clear out with the emigration, customs, and the yacht master. All of the checking out went smoothly.

Next we sailed back to Moorea to give Aaron and Anton their first look at a beautiful South Pacific Island. We spent most of the day and one night in Cooks Bay, did some snorkeling on the reef, spent the night, and then sailed on to Raiatea, a beautiful island between Moorea and Bora Bora. On Raiatea, we met Tony and his wife, Linda who have been sailing for four years. They have not been back to the states for two years, and were having their boat, Veritas, hauled out so that they could return to the U.S. until April to see children and grandchildren. Another couple told us we should climb the Mount Tapioi to the radio tower, to get a wonderful view of Raiatea and five other islands from 1,000 feet up. It was a one-hour, steep hike to the top. The views were spectacular. It was well worth the climb. We took lots of pictures that we will forward when we get to an Internet cafe.

We left Raiatea in the morning and sailed for Bora Bora. We had lovely 10-knot winds on the starboard quarter, and raised the asymmetrical spinnaker. Sailing was lovely for about 2/3 of the way, until the wind died and we made the rest of the 30 miles on iron wind.

In an almost weird way, it is almost disappointing to say that Bora Bora is about the most scenic island that we have visited. It is disappointing, because we have seen so many beautiful islands and if we would have just read the brochures and sailed straight to Bora Bora, we would have seen so much to make the trip worth our time and effort. But we have been so fortunate to see all of the islands along the way.

Everyone who makes the coconut milk run has hundreds of beautiful islands to choose from. So far, we have visited twelve islands and it would be great to see dozens more. But we must be on with our mission.

Tomorrow, we do our final checkout of French Polynesia at the Socredo Bank by getting our large deposit back. They make you post a bond equal to the cost of an airline ticket home for each person on the boat. I suppose if someone misbehaves, the authorities use the bond to buy them a ticket and put them on a plane for home. They must have had a bunch of rowdy sailors. French Polynesia is the only country that I know of that does such a thing.

It is hard to believe that we entered French Polynesia exactly two months ago, when we arrived in Hiva Oa on the 21st of August. We visited eleven islands in French Polynesia. Next stop Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands.

Sailing on,

Joe Dorr